首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Caught in a squeeze between the health needs of aging populations on one hand and the financial crisis on the other, governments
Caught in a squeeze between the health needs of aging populations on one hand and the financial crisis on the other, governments
admin
2013-09-26
119
问题
Caught in a squeeze between the health needs of aging populations on one hand and the financial crisis on the other, governments everywhere are looking for ways to slow the growth in health-care spending. Increasingly, they are looking to the generic-drugs(普通药物)industry as a savior. In November Japan’s finance ministry issued a report complaining that the country’s use of generics was less than a third of that in America or Britain. In the same month Canada’s competition watchdog criticized the country’s pharmacies for failing to pass on the savings made possible by the use of generic drugs. That greed, it reckoned, costs taxpayers nearly C$1 billion a year.
Then on November 28th the European Commission issued the preliminary results of its year-long probe into drug giants in the European Union. The report reached a damning, though provisional, conclusion: the drugs firms use a variety of unfair strategies to protect their expensive drugs by delaying the entry of cheaper generic opponents. Though this initial report does not carry the force of law(a final report is due early next year), it has caused much controversy. Neelie Kroes, the EU’s competition commissioner, says she is ready to take legal action if the evidence allows.
One strategy the investigators criticize is the use of the "patent cluster(专利群)". A firm keen to defend its drug due to go off-patent may file dozens or hundreds of new patents, often of dubious merit, to confuse and terrify potential copycats and maintain its monopoly. An unnamed drugs firm once took out 1,300 patents across the EU on a single drug. The report also suggests that out-of-court settlements between makers of patented drugs and generics firms may be a strategy used by the former to delay market entry by the latter.
According to EU officials, such misdeeds have delayed the arrival of generic competition and the accompanying savings. On average, the report estimates, generics arrived seven months after a patented drug lost its protection, though where the drug was a big seller the lag was four months. The report says taxpayers paid about ¢ 3 billion more than they would have had the generics gone on sale immediately.
But hang on a minute. Though many of the charges of bad behavior leveled at the patented-drugs industry by EU investigators may well be true, the report seems to let the generics industry off the hook(钩子)too lightly. After all, if the drugs giants stand accused, in effect, of bribing opponents to delay the launch of cheap generics, shouldn’t the companies that accepted those " bribes" also share the blame?
Which of the following accords with the author’s view?
选项
A、Charges on patented-drug industry are anything but true.
B、Generics industry is a sheer victim in the competition.
C、Only drug giants are to blame.
D、Exclusion of generics industry from taking responsibility is questionable.
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/5B27777K
0
大学英语六级
相关试题推荐
Todaytheworld’seconomyisgoingthroughtwogreatchanges,bothbiggerthananAsianfinancialcrisishereoraEuropeanmone
Peoplefromlargefamilieshaveanincreasedriskofstomachcancer,suggestsastudythatfollowedmorethan7,000Japanese-Ame
VideogameshavebecomeincreasinglypopularinbotharcadesandtheaverageAmericanhome.Peopleofallagesandfromallwalk
Whatistheappropriatetitleforthepassage?AccordingtoLarson,toredressthetrafficproblem______.
Millionsofyoungpeoplearecreatingblogs.Millionsofothersarcreadingthem.Theword"blog"isashortwayofsayingWeb
A、Sam’skneeshouldbebetterbynow.B、Thisisn’tgoodtimeforSamtoquit.C、ThenewsaboutSamisquiteasurprise.D、Samsh
A、Understandwhattheirstaffarefeelingbyunderstandingtheirbodylanguage.B、Learnmoretheculturalbackgroundoftheirst
TheInternationalOlympicCommitteechoseadoctorfromBelgiumasits【B1】______JacquesRoggewillserveatleasteightyears.
THECROCODILEPOOL(ARungusFolkTale)Therewasonceaverybeautifullonghousenear
A、Theapartmentisbetterfurnished.B、Shepreferstoliveinaquietplace.C、It’slessexpensiveforhertoliveinanapartme
随机试题
以下不属于造成过载的原因的有()。
治风寒感冒兼气滞胀满者宜用( )。
石油沥青结构属于()。
银行业从业人员受雇期间应当妥善保存客户资料及其交易信息档案,离职后,可以透露客户资料和交易信息。()
已知两同心圆,半径之差为1,若大圆的一条长为8的弦被小圆截得的弦长为则大圆的半径为_________.
六个城市中二氧化硫治理最好的城市是哪个?()下列说法不正确的是()。
一经投入生产过程,便全部消耗掉,它们的价值随之全部转移到新产品中去,并随着产品的销售而全部收回的是
下面关于多媒体PC机的叙述中,不正确的是( )。
ReadthetextbelowandanswerQuestions8-14.*Onlyonediscountmayapplytoeachfare.CHANGESANDREFUNDSTicketsmaybere
TheImportanceofLiteratureI.DefinitionofLiterature—Theword"literature"datesbackto【T1】_____【T1】______—Inconnectio
最新回复
(
0
)